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Religiousness, social support and subjective well‐being: An exploratory study among adolescents in an Asian atheist country
Author(s) -
Ju Chengting,
Zhang Baoshan,
You Xuqun,
Alterman Valeria,
Li Yongkang
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
international journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1464-066X
pISSN - 0020-7594
DOI - 10.1002/ijop.12270
Subject(s) - psychology , multilevel model , social psychology , structural equation modeling , social support , ideology , exploratory research , developmental psychology , exploratory analysis , sociology , politics , social science , statistics , mathematics , data science , machine learning , computer science , political science , law
Few studies have focused on the relationships among religiousness, social support and subjective well‐being in Chinese adolescent populations. This study tries to fill this gap. Using cluster sampling, we selected two groups: Group A, which included 738 Tibetan adolescents with a formal religious affiliation and represented adolescents from a religious culture, and Group B, which included 720 Han adolescents without a religious affiliation and represented adolescents from an irreligious culture. Structural equation modelling showed that only in Group A did social support mediate (partially) the relationship between religious experience and subjective well‐being; furthermore, the results of a hierarchical regression analysis showed that only in Group A did social support moderate the relationship between religious ideology and subjective well‐being. Possible explanations for the discrepancies between the findings obtained in this study and those obtained in previous studies are discussed.